Press Review 02/05/2016

The official newspaper Azerbaijan publishes the speech by the First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva at the graduation ceremony of the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, which, despite its young age, has won respect and great authority among the universities of the country.

In her speech, Mehriban Aliyeva touched the Karabakh issue, in particular, the April war, noting that the heroes, who died in the course of the military operations, will remain forever in the people’s memory.

Azadlig cites the opinion of the political scientist Hikmet Hajizadeh on the negative attitude of Russia to the Eastern Partnership program. In his view, this EU-funded project is aimed at suppressing the image of Russia. On the other hand, official Baku understands the seriousness of the possible sanctions of the West against Azerbaijan. The expert believes irrational steps taken by Russia create a great danger for Azerbaijan.

Yeni Musavat continues the theme of troubled loans, discussing it with experts. The reason for the discussion was the information spread by the MP Vahid Ahmedov about the preparation of a bill in relation to this matter at the Parliament. Another MP Ali Masimov offers to balance the interests of banks and government agencies on the issue of dollar-denominated loans. A part of the loans should be undertaken by banks, another one should be undertaken by state agencies, and the remaining part should be paid by the citizens themselves and the Central Bank.

The expert Akram Hasanov notes this project can only relate to future loans.

The expert Natig Jafarli calls wrong the fact that the National Bank and the government put the entire payment of dollar loans on the citizens. The government and the Central Bank understand the seriousness of the situation, as the banking sector could be overtaken by the crisis. Problem loans are more than 80%. The expert Vugar Bayramov says banks do not want and will not make any concessions.  –0--